MoET has instructed schools to cooperate with Vovinam to bring traditional martial arts into Vietnamese schools as an extracurricular subject. – In late July 2010, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) instructed schools to cooperate with Vovinam (the Vietnam Martial Arts Union) to bring traditional martial arts into Vietnamese schools as an extracurricular subject.

Ngu Duy Anh, chief of the Student Affairs Department of MoET, said that the initiative is part of the ministry’s plan to develop national sports in the public schools. It is expected that Vovinam competitions will be included at the eighth Phu Dong Student Sports Games in 2012.

The MOET decision immediately ignited fierce debate with martial arts circles.

The thao & Van hoa (Sports and Culture) newspaper interviewed analyst Dao Cong, who insists that MOET should not tell schools what kind of martial arts they must teach students.

By urging that Vovinam be taught at schools, Cong argues, MoET is promoting Vovinam as a national martial art. Cong does not believe that Vovinam merits that distinction. He says a martial arts school can be considered ‘national’ only when it was born in the nation and has existed for a long time, hundreds or thousands of years. The martial art also needs to have made a big contribution to the defense of the country. It must not incorporate “foreign factors.” By those standards, Vovinam cannot be considered to be Vietnam’s martial art.

“Compared to Tay Son-Binh Dinh martial art and Nhat Nam martial art in the central region and to many other martial arts schools, Vovinam is an upstart discipline,” Cong says.

Cong thinks MoET ought to let schools decide what kinds of martial arts they teach students, rather than discriminate in favor of Vovinam.

There has been an uproar in public education forums. ‘Rong Vang’ wrote to VietNamNet, for example, that if Vovinam is exclusively taught in the public schools, it would be tantamount to MoET’s blocking the development of other martial arts traditions. MoET has been to hasty, he says. More and broader discussion is needed.

Rong Vang adds his doubts that a proper competition could be organized at the 2012 Phu Dong Games. Students will only have two years ahead to prepare for it. Meanwhile, to have Vovinam taught at schools, Vietnam will need a high number of teachers; these cannot be trained overnight.

Responding to the wave of criticism, MoET’s Ngu Duy Anh has tried to reassure the public that the decision by MOET does not anoint Vovinam as ‘the’ national martial art or prohibit schools from teaching other martial arts.

Talking with VietNamNet, Anh stressed that Vovinam is just an extracurricular subject. He explained that MoET made its decision after the Vovinam Union contacted the ministry and presented a convincing programme to popularize the martial art at schools.

Kieu Oanh